The Golden Image of Sri Visaya [short story]

Title

Creator

Bryant, Alice Franklin

Language

English

Source

The Young Citizen : the magazine for young people 3 (2) March 1937

Year

1937

Subject

Short stories

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

54 THE YOUNG CITIZEN Jlarch, JUiTHE GOLDEN IMAGE [By ALICE FRANK (Contimied f1'om which is used in the manufacture of tuba. Now that the weather was settled and calm they had sailed . northwards to sell this bark. And under th<THE river, now that it was about to enter the sea, was deep and quiet, bark they carried something more preand had only a moderate current. cious-can~ of opium that had been The boys, although they did not know ~muggled up from Borneo. it, were about thirty miles nqrth of These Moros were now very happy, Pablo's home on a part of the seacoast for they had sold the last of their valuathat was very thinly populated. hie cargo. They had much money and While they were still about a fourth . wer.e ready to start home. of a mile from the road, which at that But their ancestors were pirates, and point ran along the shore, they followed they still have the instincts of pirates. their path around a curve and found So when they saw the boys, one of them themselves face to face with a group of ~aid in their own language, "Let's catch Moros! those boys! They don't look as if they These Moros wore exceedingly tight _belong to anyone." trousers and reel fezzes, except for one "Your suggestion is good," replied \\•ho wore a fringed turban to show that another. "My grandfather was stolen he had made the pilgrimage to Mecc<! as a boy from this very coast." and should be addressed as Hadji. In "We will gain the favor of Allah by their belts were Kris of striking de- converting them to the True Faith," sign. said the Hadji, "We will do them the Some of them were on the shore, thr favor of saving their souls, and we will others in their vintas, or outrigger get us some slaves. It is all good. canoes, in which they had sailed up After we catch them, we will gamble from the Sulu Islands. to see which of us will get them." These Moros are often called Se>i So they stal'ted after the boys lookGypsies, because they live mainly on th,, ing very fierce and blood-thirsty. Pablo water. Most of the year they had spent and Ulan sprinted away along the path in their boats in the channels of the as fast as they could go. · Their muscles swamps of southern Mindanao and the were hard and firm; and they could run Sulu Islands in quest of cascalote bark, faster than the Moros, whose muscle~ M..irch, 1937 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 55 OF SRI VISAYA LIN BRYANT .the February issue) were flabby from sitting so constantly in their boats. As soon as they had gained a lead of a hundred yards on the Moros, Ulan pulled Pablo into the forest, and led the way as fast as he could in spite of the thick vegetation. Their pursuers also left the path and turned into the jungle, but the boys were getting a little farther head. Soon they reached a cliff and started to skirt its base. They had gone along it only a short way when Pablo stumbled and tried to keep from falling by catching a vine and throwing his weight against the side nf th0 cliff. But, greatly to his surprise. he fell through the vines right into th~ diff, or, as it turned out to be, into the entrance to a hole or cave in the cliff. Ulan heard the fall, quickly jumped in after Pablo, and with lightning speed l'earranged the vines over the entrance sp skillfully that no one would imagine there was anything but solid stone behind them. · Just then the Moros, panting, passed . so close 'to them that they could almost have stretched out their arms and touched them. The boys crouched, holding their breath until; after the Moros had passed, then. relaxed and looked about them. They were in a small, uninteresting looking cave. By the dim light filtering through the vines they could see what appeared to be a hole in the far end. Pablo, always inquisitive, just had to explore this hole. When he had groped his way into it only a few yards, there was a great squeaking and fluttering, and he suddenly emerged. "It's just bats," he said to Ulan, a little angry with himself for having been so startled. "But I can just barely see a little coming from the other end of this hole, and the hole is bigger after you once get in to it. Perhaps there is another way out. Come on and let's see." So the two boys started into the hole, 'Yhich promptly became quite a passageway. They felt carefully ·ahead of them before taking each step for fear that they might fall into a hole or chasm. On their left they felt rather than saw a large high cavern opening onto their passageway, and "from some place within it they heard· the trickle (PleasrJ turn to page 67) Mart.It., 1987 THE GOLDEN IMAGE ( Contim~ed from p~ge 55) of falling water. But they kept walking to· ward the atom of light which Pablo had first seen; and now their passageway became light enough so that their eyes. accustomed now to the darkness. could sec tolerably well, anci they did not have to feel their way along. And soon they came out into a huge cave· room. But the center of the top had fallen in-part of th~ rocky debris was still there in a pile in the center of the room. It was through this hole in the roof that the light entered. The boys were at once interested in what they saw. The THE YOUNG CITIZEN KIKO'S ADVENTURES room in which they stood wa~ almost perfectly round. and th~ roof seemed to go up into .i kind of a dome. The hok, which acted as a skylight, was just slightly to one side of th-~ center. and it was small in pro· portion to the size of the room. "Say. Ulan," said Pablo. He paused startled by the echoes that came back to him, anrl then continued in a lower tone. "This is a great place. If I were a pirate and had any treason! to hide, I surely would hide i!. in here. Do you suppose anyone ever did hide anything here Let's look around thoroui;;t:hly.'' They started to go around the large room, looking care· fully along its sides. bur they 67 had not finished their explora· tion when daylight began to fade. The cave at best was on· ly dimly lighted, so the boys had to end their search and pass the night just where it found them. Bats flew over· them and our into the world above. S o o n a star shone through t he 1 r skylight. It seemed to connect them in J way with the outside world. and they felt cheered at sight of it. And welt they needed some cheer and comfort, for the poor boys had had nothing to eat since morning, and had had the. two narrowest escapes of their· lives. (To. be continued)

pages

54-55+

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